In the history
of TMG we have often confronted the status quo of science, in an effort
to present a rationale of catastrophe. This beautifully written piece
by James Maxlow offers an alternative theory to the geology of uniformitarianism
and "rings of truth". At first glance it may appear very technical,
but I would encourage you to stay attentive. It is this theory that lays
the foundation for the Electric Universe, The Electric Comet, and weather
being controlled and manipulated by charges (you will see the great contribution
to the whole that this article makes in the near future). It is One Great
Story... The story of our existence

Global tectonics was introduced a number of decades ago as an all embracing
science that seeks to quantify and explain the Earth as a dynamic, interactive
entity. As an outcome of this new philosophy we, in all our walks of life,
have become accustomed to viewing the Earth globally, be it geology, ecology,
climate, population, politics, and so on. Global tectonics however, in
its strictest sense, must go beyond the present, or near present, i.e.
human scale, and include the geological past, dating back to the formation
of the Earth during the Archaean some 4,500,000,000 years ago, and all
the Eons in between. In presenting Global Expansion Tectonics it
must be realized that the global geological and geophysical database
has only now reached the stage where any global tectonic hypotheses can
be confidently quantified, challenged, and/or discarded.

Earth expansionists, since the pioneering work of Christopher Otto Hilgenberg
in 1933, have known that if all of the Earth's continents were fitted together
they would neatly envelope the Earth with continental crust on a globe
some 55% to 60% of its present size. This coincidence led Hilgenberg to
conclude that terrestrial expansion brought about the splitting and
gradual dispersal of continents as they moved radially outwards during
geological time. This coincidence has, however, consistently failed
to gain recognition within the scientific community as a viable explanation
for modern global tectonics. The primary reason for this, in addition to
palaeomagnetic based conclusions, is considered to have been the general
lack of supportive global scale evidence to quantify accurately a reproducible
expansion process with time.

With the advent of modern, global geological and geophysical data Global
Expansion Tectonics is presented here as a revitalized, internally
consistent, geodynamic hypothesis of Earth expansion which utilizes
modern
oceanic magnetic isochron data to constrain both palaeoradius and plate
reconstruction from Early Jurassic to the present. In the concept of Global
Expansion Tectonics, prior to the Early Jurassic, all of the present
continental lithosphere was united as a single Pangaean continent, encompassing
the entire Earth at a much reduced palaeoradius. Oceanic areas were represented
by shallow epi-continental seas, with the volume of hydrosphere and atmosphere
increasing with time, in sympathy with volume of oceanic lithosphere. Very
low rates of expansion during the Precambrian suggests a prolonged period
of widespread tensional taphrogenesis during the Archaean and Proterozoic,
with a period of intense thermal and ductile activity during the Proterozoic,
leading to onset of intrasialic rifting, crustal thinning, and intracratonic
basin sedimentation during the Palaeozoic.

In order to quantify Global Expansion Tectonics, and accurately
quantify any variation in the Earth's palaeoradius with time, it is argued
that it is necessary to take into account the area and pattern of oceanic
lithosphere generated from Early Jurassic to the Present (e.g. CGMW &
UNESCO, 1990), and similarly continental lithosphere during the pre-Jurassic.
By moving backwards in time, successively older chron intervals from across
active mid-oceanic spreading ridges must be removed, and each of the remaining
chron intervals reunited along their common spreading ridges. The conclusions
drawn from consideration of the Earth's lithospheric budget however, hinge
on three mutually exclusive considerations; namely:

the surface area of oceanic lithosphere measured represents the total
area of new oceanic crust, generated and preserved during the interval
of time under study, hence there has been an expansion of the Earth with
time, in keeping with Global Expansion Tectonics;

the surface area of oceanic lithosphere measured represents the remnant
oceanic crust remaining after subduction has occurred up to the present
day, hence there has been no expansion of the Earth with time, in keeping
with plate tectonics or;

the surface area of oceanic lithosphere measured represents the remnant
oceanic crust remaining after partial subduction on an expanding Earth.

Consideration (1) forms the basis of Global Expansion Tectonics.
The mathematical equations derived from crustal data represent a confirmation
and refinement of earlier modeling studies by Hilgenberg (1933) and Vogel
(1983) enabling the kinematics of an Earth undergoing an exponential expansion,
from the Archaean to the Present, to be readily determined. In contrast,
consideration (2) is fundamental to plate tectonics and cannot be
reconciled with Global Expansion Tectonics. A value of 24 ±
8 mm/yr for rate of increase in Earth radius (Carey, 1986), calculated
from satellite laser ranging measurements, and 18 mm/yr from VLBI and SLR
geodetic measurements (Robaudo & Harrison, 1993) while speculative,
compare favourably with a value of 21 mm/yr calculated herein using empirical
sea floor surface area data. This secular increase in Earth radius is considered
adequate to account for all of the ocean floor growth since at least the
Early Jurassic, without the need for consideration of subduction of oceanic
lithosphere. Similarly consideration (3), which accommodates partial
subduction on an expanding Earth, is also rejected, as the small Earth
modeling enclosed empirically negates the need for removal of excess lithosphere
by subduction processes.

Introduction
To Earth Expansion

There is nothing more contentious in global tectonics at this
time than the expanding Earth concept (Owen, 1992).

In order to demonstrate the Post-Jurassic plate motion history of the Earth
Weijermars (1986, 1989) and Scotese et al, (1988) used published oceanic
magnetic isochron data to produce empirical and computer based plate reconstructions
respectively, on a static sized Earth model. During plate reconstruction, both
authors were confronted with problems of plate boundary mismatch and constraints
to the Earth's lithospheric budget. Balancing the lithospheric budget was overcome
by introduction of presumed, pre-existing lithosphere in order to maintain a
static Earth radius. In order to justify modeling on a static Earth radius,
Weijermars (1986, 1989) in particular, provided "six conclusive arguments against
any fast Earth expansion hypothesis", prior to modeling studies. This, unfortunately,
did not scientifically resolve the argument that modern oceanic magnetic isochron
data may in fact be better modeled at reduced Earth radii.

Estimates of palaeoradius from palaeomagnetic data (eg. Egyed, 1960,
1961; Cox & Doell, 1961a, 1961b; Ward, 1963, 1966; van Hilten, 1963,
1968; van Andel & Hospers, 1968a, 1968b; McElhinny & Brock, 1975)
were, and still are, considered by palaeomagneticians as limiting the amount
of potential Earth expansion to less than 0.8% during the last 400 million
years. Crater distributions and ages on the lunar surface (Taylor, 1983,
1984) were also considered to rule out any significant expansion of the
Earth or Moon during the last 4 billion years, and similar conclusions
were applied to Mars, Mercury and Venus (McElhinny et al, 1978;
Taylor, 1983, 1984). Similarly biogeographic distributions of invertebrates
during the early Palaeozoic (Burrett, 1983; Condie, 1989) were considered
to be incompatible with an expanding Earth. Limits to palaeogravity since
the late Precambrian (Stewart, 1978) were said to contradict rapid Earth
expansion, and annual growth increments of corals suggested to van Diggelen
(1976) that the Earth has not expanded.

Direct measuring across the Pacific Ocean, to determine the relative
plate motions, began in 1976 when NASA launched the Laser Geodynamics Satellite
(LAGEOS), as part of their Geodynamics Programme, Crustal Dynamics Project
(Cohen et al, 1985; Owen, 1992; Smith et al, 1994). The LAGEOS
laser ranging data obtained up to 1984 (Cohen et al, 1985), combined
with the LAGEOS data derived from Christodoulidis et al (1985),
plus more recent VLBI and SLR geodetic measurements (Robaudo & Harrison,
1993; Smith et al, 1994) indicated convergence rates in the Pacific
significantly less than those predicted by Minster & Jordan (1978),
based on a theoretical mathematical model on a constant sized Earth. In
particular the chord length increase between Australia and South America
(Figure 1). Owen (1992) and Carey (1995) indicated that the accountancy
of these preliminary data do not balance as they should if the Earth were
of constant dimensions. See NASA
for
the latest VLBI and SLR space geodetic results.

Recent literature now indicates that there is an increasing awareness
of problems confronting conventional static Earth tectonics, to the point
weremajor obstacles to an expanding Earth, as envisaged
by McElhinny
et al (1978) and Schmidt & Clark (1980), do
not necessarily "outnumber the evidence in favour". Of particular
interest are the findings of Ahmad (1988a, 1988b) who demonstrated that
palaeontological
and palaeomagnetic data show unequivocally that India was not involved
in long distance drift and collision with the northern continents,
as advocated by plate tectonics. Ahmad (1988a) suggested instead that Pangaea
existed as a large, composite super-continent comprising the entire existing
continental crust. Palaeomagnetic pole positions indicated to Ahmad that,
during the Upper Permian the Earth was 55% to 60% of its present diameter.

Evidence to suggest that Earth expansion may be a viable global tectonic
process has been mounting considerably since the 1981 Expanding Earth
Symposium, held in Sydney, Australia. The publications of Ahmad (1983,
1988a), Carey (1983a, 1983b, 1983c, 1988, 1995), Ehrensperger (1988), Kremp
(1983, 1992), Noëll (1989), Scalera (1990), Shields (1990) and Vogel
(1983, 1990) were of particular note, with Vogel's small Earth "terrella"
models providing the most convincing quantitative evidence for an expanding
Earth. See David Ford's web site "The
EXPANDING EARTH" for additional publications by Professor S.W. Carey.

Similarly, at the Smithsonian Institution discussion meeting in July
1989, numerous arguments were presented concerning new concepts in global
tectonics (Chatterjee & Hotton, 1992). These arguments indicated that
there
seems to be something questionable with the plate tectonic theory as it
is currently presented (Kremp, 1992), and that present concepts
of plate tectonics - continental drift - polar wandering may need to be
re-evaluated, revised, or rejected (Smiley, 1992). In order to satisfy
the requirements of the tectonician, Brunnschweiler (1983) recommended
that, a working thesis for an expanding Earth must however find the "motor
and mechanisms" to move crustal fragments horizontally in order to
force them into collisions despite their dispersal by expansion.

Intensive geotectonic research, since the introduction of both the Earth
expansion theory and plate tectonics, has now vastly increased the database
available for Earth dynamic studies. In particular, with complete coverage
of bathymetric contouring and, magnetic, palaeontologic and radiomagnetic
age dating of all the major ocean basins, the geological evidence for reconstruction
of continents and their displacement histories, according to the ocean-floor
magnetic isochron spreading data, is now available to test and explain
any geotectonic thesis.

Global Expansion Tectonics is presented here as a unified
and revitalized, internally consistent geodynamic thesis of Earth expansion,
based
on this readily available geological and geophysical database. The fundamental
premises considered in introducing Global Expansion Tectonics involve
a number of interdependent and interactive processes namely, that:

generation of post-Early Jurassic oceanic lithosphere along mid-oceanic
spreading centres is commensurate with an expansion of the Earth;

mid-oceanic spreading centres are tensional and/or transtensional règimes,
with oceanic lithosphere generated in response to a separation of plate
margins in sympathy with an expansion of the Earth;

new oceanic lithosphere, generated along mid-oceanic spreading centres,
is cumulative with time, with no requirement for removal of older lithosphere
by subduction processes;

the total surface area of oceanic lithosphere accumulated in a given
time interval is a reflection of the increase in palaeoradius during that
time interval, and is therefore a measurable quantity;

basin development and orogenesis are natural consequences of an expanding
Earth, as continental and oceanic lithosphere re-equilibrate to a changing
surface curvature, and;

hydrospheric and atmospheric accumulation has been increasing with time,
in sympathy with an accumulation of the lithosphere.

Empirical
Small Earth Modeling: A Brief History

The Earth, like any sphere, does not lend itself to an undistorted
representation of its surface area upon a flat map or page of a book.
Maps however, are intrinsically necessary for the presentation of Earth
based information. Because of this, various mathematical equations have
been devised over the years in order to project the image of the surface
features of the Earth into map format. The distortions, inherent in all
of these cartographic projection techniques are, out of necessity, generally
accepted, and acknowledged in the presentation of map based information.

In the presentation of expanding Earth tectonic processes however, as
the diameter of the small Earth globe is reduced backwards in time, the
distortion of continental outlines becomes increasingly unrealistic and
unconvincing in map format as continental areas progressively occupy more
of the surface area of the globe. To represent the entire Earth it is therefore
necessary to rely heavily on spherical small Earth global models to define
accurately the continental configurations, and plate motion history, throughout
geological time.

This historical development of small Earth global modeling is briefly
summarised from Carey (1975), and Vogel (1983), in order to familiarise
the reader with the work of past model makers. The historical development
of the theory of Earth expansion has been comprehensively covered by Carey
(1975, 1976) and will not be addressed further.

Hilgenberg (1933). Stimulated by the pioneering work of Alfred
Wegener on continental drift, Otto Hilgenberg has been attributed as being
the first to fit all the land masses together to completely enclose a small
papier-machè globe (Kolchanov, 1971; Marvin, 1973; Carey, 1975;
Vogel, 1983), (Figure 2). On his globes all oceans were eliminated
and the sialic crust neatly enclosed the whole Earth on a globe about 60%
of the diameter of the present Earth.

Figure
2Hilgenberg's
(1933) expanding Earth "terrella" attributed to being the first small Earth
models constructed.
Small globe is approximately 60% of present Earth radius. (From Vogel, 1983)

Reconstruction across the Atlantic was considered to be convincing however
difficulties were encountered in the Indian Ocean, due to a greater dispersion
of continents and uncertain initial position of India and Madagascar. The
Pacific region was the most difficult to reconstruct, as workers to follow
also found. Unlike the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, where the borders retained
their shapes, the Pacific borders were considered to have opened much earlier
and remained tectonically mobile throughout the dispersal times (Vogel,
1983).

To explain the expansion process Hilgenberg postulated that the mass
of the Earth, as well as its volume, waxed with time (Carey, 1975). Because
of this stance, and several problems inherent in his reconstruction however,
Hilgenberg's ideas on Earth expansion were largely ignored (Marvin, 1973)
and he received scant recognition for his efforts.

During the next 30 years the concept of an expanding Earth was advanced
by Halm (1935), Keindl (1940), Egyed (1956), Carey (1958), and Heezen (1959),
developed primarily in the German and Russian literature.

Brösske (1962): used the present coastlines of the continents
and assembled them onto a globe at 55% of the present Earth. His assembly
(Figure 3) resembled Hilgenberg (1933) however it had a tighter
relationship for Africa, the Americas, Greenland, Europe and Asia. In closing
the Pacific Ocean Brösske located eastern Australia into the Peru
re-entrant, and the New Guinea front of the Australian plate against California
(Vogel, 1983), while the East Indies was packed between the Australian
northwest shelf and Southeast Asian mainland (Carey, 1975).

Barnett (1962, 1969) adopted the 1000 fathom (200 metre) isobath
for his reconstruction on a smaller globe as Hilgenberg (1933) had done.
He used rubber templates cut from a 4½ inch diameter globe and reconstructed
them on a 3 inch diameter wooden globe, representing a palaeoradius of
about 65% of the present day Earth (Figure 4).

Barnett's early reconstructions across the Arcto-Atlantic and Australia
to Antarctic were conventional, and the Pacific was closed by bringing
West Antarctica against the southern Andes, Eastern Australia against Central
America, and the northern margin of Australia against North America (Carey,
1975).

Despite the crude reconstruction method used by Barnett he noted that,
"it
is difficult to believe that chance alone can explain this fitting together
of the continental margins". This, in effect, is the driving force
behind advocates of expansion tectonics, the fact that all of the continents
can be convincingly reconstructed onto smaller globes.

Barnett later made a new reconstruction (Figure 5) bringing together
the southern points of Africa, Australia, South America and the Antarctic
peninsular to a common point near the Falkland Islands. He presumed this
point to be the site of "primary rupture of the Earth". Carey (1970) similarly
considered this point to be the centre of maximum dispersion for all the
land-masses of the world. Barnett's models were the first to emphasise
the Earth's hemihedral asymmetry, the antipodal relation of continents
and oceans, the greater separation of the southern continents and the northward
migration of all continents (Carey, 1975) with respect to the rapidly expanding
southern hemisphere.

Figure
5Detail
of Barnett's (1969) small Earth reconstruction, showing the four southern continents
directed
towards a postulated site of primary rupture near the Falkland Islands. (From
Barnett, 1969)

Barnett also made comment on the newly explored world wide oceanic "rise-ridge
systems" (mid oceanic rift zones), suggesting that, in the early phase
of the Earth's history, all the tension rifts that gave rise to the oceanic
"rise-ridge systems" were mid-oceanic, encircling the continental plates.

Creer (1965) carried out model experiments by enlarging fibreglass
shell models of continents by a factor of 1.82 and assembling them onto
a 50 centimetre globe, corresponding to a radius change of 55% of the present
size Earth. The impression Creer received was that, "the fit of the continents
on a smaller Earth appeared to be too good to be due to coincidence and
required explaining". The fits obtained at 0.55, 0.77 and 1.0 of the present
radius are shown in Figures 6.

Figure
6Creer's
(1965) small Earth reconstruction, at 55% of the present Earth radius,
suggesting to Creer that the continental lithosphere first developed a U-shaped
crack between Australia,
America and Asia, which subsequently widened to form the Pacific Ocean. (From
Vogel, 1983)

According to Creer the continental crust first developed a U-shaped
crack between Australia, America and Asia during the "Early Precambrian".
Subsequent Earth expansion was then largely taken up along this initial
crack, which widened to form the Pacific Basin. His Atlantic assembly was
similar to present day conventional reconstructions, however difficulties
were still raised with the Indian Ocean. Creer included a Tethys which
suffered an unconvincing discontinuity of more than 6000 kilometres from
Saigon to its New Guinea continuation on the site of the Aleutians (Vogel,
1983).

In contrast to other workers Creer envisaged that expansion occurred
early in the Precambrian. Being strongly influenced by the emerging conclusions
of palaeomagneticians he concluded that the Earth's radius was not appreciably
different from its present value when the fragmentation of Laurasia and
Gondwanaland commenced during the Permian or Triassic.

Vogel (1983, 1984, 1990): to date has produced the most comprehensive
set of models, or "terrella" as he referred to them, at diameters of 40%,
60%, 66% and 75% of the present sized Earth (Figures 7) plus a unique
representation of a 55% reassembled globe inside a transparent plastic
sphere of the present diameter.

Vogel's models again confirmed the greater dispersion of the southern
continents, and he noted also a marked westward movement of all the northern
continents relative to the southern continents, along what is now referred
to as the "Tethyan shear", described by Carey (1976). These models, based
on mid-oceanic ridge systems and sea floor spreading zones, demonstrated
to Vogel that, in general, the continents tended to move out radially from
their Precambrian positions to reach their modern positions. Vogel commented
that this is an "odd coincidence for any theory except that of expansion
of the Earth".

Figure
7 Vogel's
(1983) "terrella" models at various stages of expansion commencing with a continental
reconstruction, without continental shelves, at 40% of the present Earth radius.
A 60% radius model is shown within a transparent sphere of the present day Earth
at the right, demonstrating a "radial" motion of Earth expansion. (Modified
from Kremp, 1992)

From his extensive modeling Vogel (1990) gave a comprehensive outline
of the fit of continental fragments under the headings of Gondwanaland
and Laurasia. Development of the oceans, with increasing Earth radius,
was considered to have commenced during the Mesozoic, after final dislocation
of the continental fragments, due to widening of the main mid-oceanic fracture
zones. Vogel went on to consider the two hemispheres as complementary counterparts,
with no Tethys Ocean or other "sphenochasms" required.

Vogel concluded from his modeling that: at a reduced Earth radius of
55% to 60% of the present,

the continental outlines can be fitted together to form a closed crust;

the positions of the different continents with respect to each other
remain generally constant, with their separation caused by a "radial expansion
of the Earth" and;

the cause of the movements of continents resulted from an accelerating
increase in radius with time, in accordance with sea-floor spreading.

Vogel commented that "an accordance of these three phenomena cannot
be accidental", but due to"processes operating from within
the interior of the Earth resulting in Earth expansion".

In addition to the spherical models presented above a number of authors
have presented graphical models worthy of note, based on various modeling
techniques.

Dearnley (1965a, 1965b) used a reconstruction of Precambrian
orogenic belts in the Superior and Grenville règimes to deduce an
expanding Earth model and proposed that the Earth's radius was 4400 kilometres
(69%) at 2,750 million years, and 6000 kilometres (94%) at 650 million
years (Figure 8). Dearnley regarded the major crustal features,
in particular the orogenic fold-belts, as a direct crustal response to
the underlying convection current activity of the mantle, and suggested
a relatively steady rate of expansion commencing as far back as 4500 million
years ago.

Shields (1976, 1979, 1983b, 1990) based his model compilation
primarily on palaeobiology, especially the trans-Pacific terrestrial biotic
links that are not reflected in regions bordering the Atlantic. Shields
(1979) used these biotic links to emphasis an east-west initial opening
of the Pacific Ocean during Early Jurassic times, contrary to the plate
tectonic view that the Pacific was formed from an even wider ocean ("Panthallassa
Ocean", Scotese (1987)) during Mesozoic times.

Shields (1979) presented a new reconstruction of the continents bordering
the Pacific (Figure 9), a new Arctic Ocean reconstruction, and a
more or less conventional Atlantic and Indian Ocean assembly. He concluded
that "the Tethys Sea was much narrower than many suppose".

Owen (1976, 1983a, 1983b) produced a voluminous atlas of continental
displacement and expansion of the Earth during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic,
based on a linear global expansion rate, commensurate with a 20% increase
in diameter to the present mean Earth diameter, since the Late Triassic-Early
Jurassic.

Owen (1976) adopted the 1000 metre isobath as the edge of the continental
shelf and used base maps of the continents, cut from 2 millimetre thick
expanded polystyrene foam, in conjunction with rubber inflatable spheres,
to determine the point at which the various continents fitted together
to reform Pangaea precisely. Using this method the diameter of the Earth
in the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic was found to be approximately 80% of
its modern mean diameter (Figure 10). The rate of Earth expansion
was determined to be essentially linear for the past 200 million years.

Although Owen (1976) concluded that reconstructions which assume a constant
dimension Earth are untenable, he assumed that marginal subduction zones
were active throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, which is in direct contradiction
to the Earth expansion views of Carey and Vogel.

Figure
10 (Right)Owen's (1976) small Earth reconstruction of the Pangaean hemisphere at 80%
of the present Earth radius, with positions of the continental lithosphere determined
by their modern 1000 metre isobath. Trizenithal projection centred on the north
and south geographic poles, constructed at 180 Ma. (From Owen, 1976)

Schmidt and Embleton (1981) in commenting on the Early Proterozoic
common apparent polar-wander paths for Africa, Australia, Greenland and
North America deduced that there is abundant geochemical, geological, geochronological
and tectonic evidence to suggest that these landmasses were much less dispersed
in the Precambrian than they are now. They used a small Earth globe, equal
to 55% of the present diameter, to demonstrate that the Proterozoic geological,
geochronological and palaeomagnetic information can be satisfactorily resolved
on a smaller Earth diameter. Because of the palaeomagnetic evidence against
Earth expansion however (eg. Egyed, 1960, 1961; Cox & Doell, 1961a,
1961b; Ward, 1963, 1966; van Hilten, 1963, 1968; van Andel & Hospers,
1968a, 1968b; McElhinny & Brock, 1975) they proposed that the paradox
may be resolved by an expansion of the Earth occurring during the Proterozoic,
between about 1600 to 1000 million years ago (Figure 11).

Neiman (1984, 1990) based his small Earth modeling on a tectonic
development of the Earth, and considered the process of stretching and
rupture of the core to be characteristic of the growth of continental zones.
The most rapid changes were found to have occurred during the Mesozoic
and Cenozoic. Continental regions were considered to be manifested in the
formation of "whole systems of aulacogens", particularly
around continental margins, and oceanic zones developed initially as comparatively
small and shallow epicontinental seas.

Neiman considered that the change in size of the Earth varied from 16%
of the modern radius at 2.2 billion years, 30% at 1.2 billion years, 37%
at 1 billion years and 55% to 60% for the Mesozoic (Figure 12).

Figure
12 (Right)Neiman's (1984) schematic small Earth tectonic reconstruction of the Earth
for (A) the Mid-Cenozoic and,
(B) the Late Proterozoic. Arrows indicate the present-day north orientation
for each continent. (From Neiman, 1984)

Perry (in Carey, 1986) demonstrated with geometrical precision
what Vogel (1983) found from empirical small Earth modeling. He set up
a computer programme based on matrix algebra and a hidden-line algorithm,
so that continents could be moved radially from the centre of the Earth
and translated using one centre of coincidence and one rotation pole (Figure
13). Perry was able to generate successive positions of spreading ridge,
fracture zones, and magnetic anomaly lineations, and from these he was
able to calculate the amount of radial expansion implied by each anomaly.

Figure
13 (Left)Perry's computer reconstruction of the Earth, suggesting that continents
move out "radially" during Earth expansion, using one centre of coincidence
and one rotation pole (From Carey, 1986)

Scalera (1988) used computerized cartographic methodology in
an attempt to resolve the most fundamental problem confronting Earth expansion
tectonics; that of spherical geometry varying with time. Based on tectonic
lineament and geological-match data, Scalera constructed computer generated
orthographic projections of smaller radius Earth models at radii of 5300
kilometres (83%), 4300 kilometres (67%) and 3500 kilometres (55%) (Figure
14). From the results of his research Scalera formed the opinion that
"the Earth's history, as written and clearly readable on the bottom of
the oceans, is not the history of plate tectonics but the history of a
planet that has expanded".

From this brief review of small Earth expansion models it must be noted
that, although there is extensive literature on the subject of Earth expansion,
these
published models represent essentially the sum-total from which Earth expansion
has been judged in the past. These models were developed, and the majority
conceived, prior to or during the early stages of investigation into sea-floor
spreading, prior to a complete and accurate geological and geochronological
coverage of the ocean basins, and prior to the inception of modern global
tectonic concepts.
These reconstructions of continents on small Earth
models outlined above all suffer from a lack of precise cartographic methods,
and quantitative constraint of both palaeoradius and time. Only Owen
used a careful, quantitative, non-computerised cartographic method to generate
his models, however, even Owen's method predates modern oceanic mapping
which, if available, would have permitted him to possibly explore much
smaller Earth radii.

Throughout the subsequent, and even most recent literature, small Earth
models, and hence Earth expansion, continue to be judged by the scientific
community as speculative and inconclusive. It is considered that one
of the the main reasons for this misguided judgement is because, with reconstructions
based primarily on a visual fit-together of opposing continental margins,
the small Earth models give rise to a wide variation of morphological fits,
in particular the Pacific Ocean region. Similarly a conclusive, quantifiable
"motor and mechanism" for Earth expansion was not given to enable researchers
to judge conclusively the merits of Earth expansion.

The small Earth models outlined above all indicate however that, a Pangaean
reconstruction on a globe representing between 55% to 60% of the present Earth
radius can produce a tight, coherent fit of continents. Depending on the
isobath or continental outline chosen; orogenic zones match consistently; geological
boundaries are maintained; and palaeobiological boundaries match across continental
boundaries. Regardless of the limitations of these historical small Earth
models this fact cannot be ignored. With the completion of modern bathymetric
and oceanic magnetic isochron mapping, the technology and global database is
now such that the problem of constraining both palaeoradius and plate configuration
with time can now be addressed and accurately quantified. This published oceanic
database will now be used to quantify the introduction of Global Expansion
Tectonics as a viable alternative global tectonic concept.